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Fast-paced mobile technology innovations have led to the emergence of several mobile technologies, such as mobile learning (Sattarov & Khaitova, 2020), mobile payment (Petry & Moormann, 2020), mobile health (Byrd IV, Kim, Yeh, Lee, & O'Leary, 2021). Mobile health technology can be used as a viable option to easily and effectively track patients’ conditions. This, in turn, enables improved accessibility, affordability, and efficiency of healthcare provision. mHealth differs from conventional electronic health (e-health) technologies in that it is not dependent on computers and wired Internet connections. It exploits the benefits conferred by wireless cellular communication systems (i.e., mobility, portability, and extended battery capacity), while minimising the restrictions of time and space on health service provision (Sezgin & Yıldırım, 2014). In this way, healthcare can be made significantly more accessible.
Additional advantages of mHealth services include cost, speed, and promotion of positive customs among patients, such as access to health services. As a new and significant approach of e-health, mHealth is not designed merely to mediate communication. It makes it easier for information and services associated with healthcare to be provided and managed through mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, sensors, and monitors) and wireless networks.
For these reasons, many healthcare applications and services that benefit both patients and healthcare professionals have been developed based on mHealth technology. These include mobile telemedicine, patient monitoring, localised medical services, and broader health information accessibility. Owing to such information technology (IT) innovations, traditional healthcare systems have been revolutionised, with manual care being substituted with automatic monitoring and rapid intervention (Dwivedi, Shareef, Simintiras, Lal, & Weerakkody, 2016).
Although it is a subfield of e-health, mHealth is faster, timely, and mobile (Quiñonez, Walthouwer, Schulz, & de Vries, 2016). A general definition of mHealth is that it is the use of the latest wireless information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate the delivery of healthcare services to patients via mobile devices like smartphones and tablets (Marcolino et al., 2018). Free et al. (2013) identified three categories of healthcare services that can be delivered through mHealth: (1) promotion services concerned with diagnosing and managing conditions; (2) prevention services focused on condition monitoring and intervention, as well as achieving better treatment compliance; and (3) procedural services focused on enhancing the efficiency of healthcare protocols like appointment attendance, test results, and guidance.
The topic of technology acceptance within developing countries has been extensively studied, with particular attention being paid to aspects related to ICTs, such as e-learning, e-health, e-commerce, and e-government. The need to explore the implications of the various concepts integrated in suggested theoretical models has been advocated by various researchers, such as Alshehri, Drew, Alhussain, and Alghamdi (2012). For example, according to Datta (2011), a limited number of explanations have been put forward to account for the variation in the degree to which technology has been accepted in developing countries despite the obvious significance that technology has in such areas.
Furthermore, considering the differences between developed and developing countries regarding the extent of adoption, comparative analysis and reassessment of current models and theoretical frameworks are required. mHealth applications are valuable as a means of health service provision both economically and medically; despite this, their implementation continues to be opposed by cultural, technological, social, organisational, and political factors, particularly in developing regions.